6 Best Brand-Shaping Strategies for Social Media

Featured article by Andrej Vidovic, Independent Technology Author

As much as 71% of consumers are likely to recommend a brand they have had a positive experience with on social media.

Creating a thorough brand strategy for social media is a critical part of achieving business success in a world where B2B and B2C customers are all a part of these popular networks.

In this article, we will look into several strategies that you should follow in order to achieve great brand recognition and visibility on social media.

Strategy #1: Define Your Social Media Marketing Personas

Tik Tok demographics are younger than Facebook audiences. And Instagram users are, on average, wealthier than Twitter users. In general, marketing personas vary across different networks.

The same content won’t resonate with these different users in the same way. Creating multiple personas for your own social media marketing efforts is the first thing to do when building your strategy.

Map your company’s customer base to different social media networks. For example, you can target millennials on Twitter, while on LinkedIn you could target small business owners.

Establishing different personas for each network will help you narrow down content ideas and define your brand voice for each.

Strategy #2: Stay Consistent On All Channels

Keeping your social media presence consistent across all profiles, channels and platforms will help form a positive opinion about your brand in the minds of your followers.

They will know what to expect and have a reference point for your brand. Your branding elements, messaging, tone of voice and content should remain consistent across your social media channels.

When dealing with brands online, 60% of users expect a consistent experience.

Your profile picture should always be your recognizable brand logo. If you’re changing certain elements on it – for instance, in observance of a specific company milestone or a holiday season – make sure you’ve applied the changes on all platforms.

Your brand’s voice, imagery, colors and overall look should match on all social media channels. Following and applying your brand’s visual guidelines or brand book should be helpful to ensure consistency.

The tone of voice and your messaging will, of course, depend on the sort of business you have. But overall, a casual, conversational and occasionally witty tone is preferred on social media. Just make sure it doesn’t compromise your company’s professionalism.

The most important thing is to embody your brand values by being consistent in communication across all social networks through your persona, tone, language and purpose.

Strategy #3: Pay Special Attention To Your Visuals

Consistency in visual branding is the first step, but you will need to take it up a notch.

Having the same colors and fonts reflected in your graphics, videos and images also means:

– The same pop of color or filter on all pagesso that your brand identity is clear to your audience
– The overlay text fonts in your videos should be similar to ones you use for the images on your blog posts

The idea is for your followers to notice that a social media post belongs to you, even before they see your social media handle or logo image.

According to digital agency Digital Silk, your social media brand guide should include fonts and colors and an outline of their uses.

Remember to use photography and video content that reflects your brand’s aesthetics so that your brand identity flows seamlessly across different channels.

Strategy #4: Plan Your Content For Every Social Media Platform Individually

If you post the exact same content on all social media platforms, the effect may fall short of expectations. Different social media channels have different functionalities and distinct audiences that may react differently to a same type of post.

For instance, Tik Tok content is expected to have a “raw” behind-the-scenes or homemade feel to it. The video content is almost always in portrait mode, filmed on mobile phones or computer cameras.

Instagram users, on the other hand, expect more polished content and amazing photos, while Twitter is all about written interaction and concise messaging.

A long Facebook post simply would not have the same impact on, say, Instagram.

Try to come up with a social media strategy that will cover all of your different platforms and profiles and create content for each. You can post the same thing, but strive to repurpose it and present it differently across different platforms.

Making a separate content strategy for each network will add more value to your target audience on each and keep them engaged.

Evaluate every social media platform: where there is audience that doesn’t fit your brand, don’t use that particular network. Creating content for it would most likely be a waste of time and resources. Not every social network is right for you and it’s important to determine which social media your target audience is most active on.

Strategy #5: Personalize Your Social Media Messaging

As a part of your wider branding process, you company has surely acquired bits of information about your leads, prospects, customers and target audience as a whole.

This tracking of users’ habits is a good start for a personalization of your social media environment. Think about their experience of your company on these networks.

This info about your target audience is useful for more accurate targeting – Facebook and other networks will suggest content and ads based on this user info and by following their searches and other online behavior.

The data about your users is also good for segmentation of your social media audience into different groups. You can create and target specific content to these groups in order to reach them on a more personal and relevant level.

By creating personalized social media content for different audiences, you are more likely to see engagement.

Strategy #6: Post Regularly According To Your Content Calendar

The critical ingredient for succeeding on social media is to post quality, relevant content in regular intervals.

Your social media strategy goal is to build a trusting long-term relationship with your target audience and achieve a great brand recognition and visibility. Getting lost in the social media noise is all too easy, and to prevent that from happening, you need a well-thought-out social media calendar.

Posting engaging content frequently  is much easier to do when you prepare your content days or even weeks in advance.

A documented social media strategy should also include when to post a specific kind of content, meaning the day of the week and the time of the day.

By following your social media calendar, you can balance out your value-adding posts with promotional material, schedule updates and plan your content.

Your social media calendar should consist of:

– Topic and titles of your posts
– Post content and details
– Keywords
– Target personas
– Offers and call-to-actions

Research how often you should post on each platform, based on the type of content you’re posting. For example, if you post predominantly useful, “how to” content, you may get away with posting more frequently without turning away your audience.

However, this really depends on your audience and your industry. Dig into your niche and find an optimal amount of social media posting that won’t alienate your followers.

A general rule of thumb for posting on social media goes as follows:

– Facebook: 2-4 times per day
– Instagram: 1-2 times per day
– LinkedIn: once per day

Even so, with all the planning ahead, don’t forget that social media is all about real-time updates. So leave a gap in your content calendar for posts that you can react with in a moment.

When you set up a social media calendar, you put yourself in a position to organize and allocate your efforts and resources to your platforms.

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